When he became a Christian in the early 1970s, Bruce Cockburn decided not to become part of the Christian rock scene. In a career spanning 50 years, he’s become known for music and activism that emphasize following Jesus, loving the unwanted, and seeking justice for the disadvantaged.
Like many Christians who emphasize Christianity as a countercultural faith, Cockburn hasn’t always been accepted. He has prioritized helping the powerless even if when it isn’t popular, or means crossing cultural and political barriers. However, a variety of Christians have always hailed his work. Fans like U2’s Bono have compared his music to the Psalms, and others have compared his songwriting about social causes to Bob Dylan.
Here’s what you need to know about him.
Important Events in Bruce Cockburn’s Life
Born on May 27, 1945, in Ottowa, Ontario, Canada, Cockburn grew up in what he later described as a nominally religious home. His family attended church occasionally to appease his more religious grandparents—and perhaps because, as he put it in 2014, they didn’t want anyone to think they were communists.
Cockburn started taking music lessons at 10 and got hooked on rock and roll when he became interested in guitars. Like many young people in the 1960s, his interest in rock and roll and Beatnik poetry clashed with his parents. The clash continued when he left music school after one year in 1965, playing in various Canadian bands.
He experimented with alternate spirituality but began moving toward Christianity when he met Kitty Macaulay in 1966, a Christian who introduced him to C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. They married in 1969 and had a daughter in 1976.
Cockburn recalled having a spiritual experience during his wedding, getting the distinct sense Jesus was in the room as he completed his vows. It wasn’t until 1973 that he committed to Christianity. By this time, artists like Larry Norman and Mylon LeFevre were producing Christian rock, but Contemporary Christian Music barely existed as a market. Rather than marketing himself exclusively to Christians, Cockburn included Christian imagery in his songs while reaching out to folk and rock audiences.
His faith also amplified his interest in supporting the oppressed. His 1970s music mostly sang about spiritual experiences but included protest songs about deforestation and indigenous rights. The protest direction became more pronounced after 1983 when Oxfam Canada invited Cockburn to Central America. He visited refugee camps filled with people fleeing the Guatemalan Civil War and Nicaragua’s Sandinista government. Much of his 1980s output consisted of songs pushing people, Christians and non-Christians alike, to consider the conflicts in Central and South America.
While the 1980s were Cockburn’s most active activist period, it has continued throughout his career. He has traveled to war zones and performed benefit concerts raising awareness about dictatorships, refugees, child soldiers, and the long-term damage of land mines.
While his role as a Christian witness for just causes continued to grow, Cockburn has admitted his inner spiritual life fluctuates. Partly, the struggle has been that he stopped attending church regularly after his divorce in 1980, finding it hard to find a new church home.
However, that started to change in 2011, when Cockburn married M.J. Hannett and became a father again. The family settled in San Francisco, and M.J. became interested in attending Lighthouse Church. Cockburn began attending in 2018 and currently serves on its worship team. He continues to speak at churches and to Christian media groups about songwriting and faith.
10 Great Bruce Cockburn Albums
Here is a range of Cockburn’s work, from his early years to his most recent releases:
2. Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws
3. Humans
5. Nothing But a Burning Light
6. Christmas
8. You’ve Never Seen Everything
10. O Sun O Moon
Other works can be found on his Rarities and Greatest Hits 1970-2020 albums.
10 Great Bruce Cockburn Quotes
1. “Jesus instructs us to love, to seek the Divine in the everyday, to foment real peace and real freedom, to share bounty among the poor, and to challenge malevolent power even if it means placing yourself at great risk.” — Rumours of Glory
2. “. . . I’ve had a certain advantage over people like [Amy Grant] in that I had already started to build an audience before I was a Christian, which was a reasonably thoughtful one, and apparently willing to tolerate a bit of Christian dogma coming their way. I haven’t had to face this dilemma of not wanting to operate in the secular milieu, and not knowing how to get an audience without doing that.” — “Bruce Cockburn: The Syndicate Interview,” Thom Granger, Harvest Rock Syndicate vol. 7 issue 1
3. “The increased social involvement of my songs has been the result of my commitment to Christianity . . . If you’re going to love your neighbor, you have to know him. And after visiting Central America, I realized there was a direct connection between loving your neighbor and political involvement.” — “If He Had a Rocket Launcher . . .” Christianity Today
4. “The point is not that I’m telling [my listeners] how they have to think. The point is this is what I saw, this is what I felt. Check it out. If it’s not interesting, don’t check it out anymore. But this is what I have to offer.” — interview in Bruce Cockburn: Pacing the Cage
5. “The job of a songwriter or any artist is to reflect what you can grasp of life and put it in some kind of communicable form so we can all share it.” — “Bruce Cockburn: Kicking at the Darkness for 50 Years (and counting!),” John J. Thompson, True Tones
6. “I don’t feel I have the corner on understanding anything. I just have a desire to have a relationship with God, a day-to-day thing . . . I’ve always believed a relationship with God should be central to everyone’s life, and I’ve tried to keep it the center of mine.” — “Singer-Songwriter Bruce Cockburn’s Latest Gig? His Church’s Worship Band,” John Longhurst, Christianity Today
7. “. . . the message of Jesus is like a hammock you can relax into. It’s love and forgiveness. And it’s not just the Christian part of the Bible that talks about that—the Old Testament talks about love and forbearance; it runs right through. But Jesus exemplifies it in so many ways and makes it so clear, yet people still miss the message.” — “‘Big Circumstance’ Has Brought Us Here,” Ben Self, Mockingbird
8. “I want to paint sonic pictures of what I encounter, feel, and think is true . . . I don’t like the idea of preaching—although I’ve been accused of, usually by critics annoyed at anything that doesn’t conform to their brand of cynicism.” — Rumours of Glory
9. “It’s what every human has in common, regardless of ideology or lifestyle or clothing style or anything else. We’ve all got these wounds. I suppose the wounds of Christ are archetypes for these wounds. It’s in our woundedness that we have our connection point.” — “A Conversation with Bruce Cockburn,” Andy Whiteman, Image Journal
10. “God is good. God is on your side, and if you believe and pray, or maybe even if you don’t, then God will help you. But what constitutes help may not be what you expect, and the same goes for believe, pray, and even good.” — Rumours of Glory
10 Lessons Christians Can Learn from Bruce Cockburn
1. Christians are called to love others well. Many Christians today praise Cockburn for his activism, but just as many have criticized him for being too radical. When criticized, he has pointed critics back to the fact Jesus called his followers to love the least of these, regardless of how popular that is.
2. Christians should honor their callings by practicing their craft. Experts frequently refer to Cockburn as an exceptional guitarist and observe he always seems to be seeking ways to play better.
3. The past affects everyone in surprising ways. Much of Cockburn’s memoir deals with his struggles to relate to women, realizing that his upbringing hadn’t prepared him to understand emotional openness.
4. God’s love doesn’t change. In discussions about his divorce, Cockburn has said a key healing moment was recognizing that while his marriage had ended, it hadn’t changed whether or not God accepted him.
5. Changing style and focus isn’t a bad thing. Over 50 years of making music, Cockburn’s work has fluctuated between genres, influences, and themes. However, his core passions have stayed the same, even if he’s gone through periods when he focuses more on one idea than another.
6. Christians will be known for their love. One recurring critique of Cockburn is that he’s a Christian with no community. While Cockburn has admitted he didn’t find a church community after his divorce, he also shares plenty of stories in his memoir about feeling judged at whatever Christian community he visited. His choices haven’t always been holy, but too frequently, fellow Christians have judged him before talking with him.
7. Songwriters must be open to mystery and surprises. In a conversation hosted by Grace Cathedral San Francisco, Cockburn observed he often finds his songs affect people in ways he doesn’t expect.
8. Christians find community in unexpected places. While Cockburn has gone in and out of fashion with the Christian music community, he has routinely connected with Christians who shared his musical interests. For example, producer T Bone Burnett and acclaimed indie rock musician Sam Phillips contributed to several of his albums.
9. Wise artists consider the time and place. One of Cockburn’s best-known songs is “If I Had a Rocket Launcher,” an angry lament inspired by South American refugee crises. Cockburn has affirmed the song isn’t meant to be a literal celebration or promotion of taking revenge. Still, he has sometimes avoided singing the song after a national crisis to avoid spreading more anger.
10. Change is always possible. After decades of feeling turned off by church, Cockburn was as surprised as everyone else to find he was attending church again and playing in its worship band.
Great Books and Movies about Cockburn
1. Kicking at the Darkness: Bruce Cockburn And The Christian Imagination by Brian J. Walsh. Walsh builds on Bono’s description of Cockburn as a “modern-day psalmist,” showing how Cockburn’s music has explored biblical ideas in thoughtful, challenging ways. Walsh also considers whether Cockburn’s approach to faith can help renew the Christian imagination.
2. Strong Hand of Love: A Tribute to Mark Heard. Mark Heard never became a huge financial success, but many consider him the best songwriter Christian music ever produced. In this documentary made after Heard’s 1992 death, Cockburn and colleagues like Michael Been discuss what made Heard a unique Christian musician.
3. River of Sand. In this acclaimed 1998 documentary, Cockburn travels to Mali to learn about its culture, music, and environmental situation. The documentary includes Cockburn learning about Mali’s desertification problems and playing music with musicians Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate.
4. Rumours of Glory: A Memoir. Co-written with Greg King, this memoir covers Cockburn’s childhood up to 2014. He discusses his spiritual journey, the people who have informed his activism, and his collaborations with other acclaimed artists.
5. Bruce Cockburn: Pacing the Cage. This 2018 documentary includes footage from Cockburn’s concerts and interviews with bandmates, producers, fans, and friends about his work.
6. World of Wonders: The Lyrics and Music of Bruce Cockburn by James Heald. Heald looks at all of Cockburn’s albums up to 2017. There are chapters on recurring themes—from Inklings-inspired spiritual imagery to sociopolitical concerns—and how his music combines jazz, folk, and other influences.
Lyrics and music for various Cockburn songs are currently available on Amazon.
Further Reading:
Is It Okay for Christians to Listen to Secular Music?
20 Great Books about Christian Music
What You Should Know about Rich Mullins
How Did Randy Stonehill Revolutionize Christian Music?
Photo Credit: Bob Doran/Flickr
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